Hinge construction



Dec. 16, 1 947. V "o. E. NORBERG HINGE CONSTRUCTION Filed June 25, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. 050% E NOE5EE Dec. 16, 1947. o. E.- NORBERG 2,432,925 I HINGE CONSTRUCTION a F'ile d June 25, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2' /2 mwgNroR. I 0J6)? 5. NOF5E4i BY Patented Dec. 16,. 1947 CONSTRUCTION Oscar E. Norberg, Cincinnati, Ohio; assignor, bymesne assignments, to- Gibson Refrigerator Company, Greenville; Mich, a corporation of.

Michigan Appl cationlJune 25, 1941, SeriaLNo. 399,648

1' Claim. 1

Broadly, this invention relatesto refrigerators. More specifically, it relates to closuremembers for evaporator chests and the like, and to novel means for pivotally supporting the closuremember.

Heretofore, closure members for the access opening of evaporator chests and the like have been pivotally supported directly fromv the chest and arranged when closed to directly contact the chest. Such'constructions have not been entirely satisfactory because the closure members become frozen to the evaporator chest and cannot be easily opened. When the closure member is made of glass, either wither without a metalframe, the close proximity of the glass" to the chest causes objectionable condensation on the glass.

Accordingly, the principal object of theinvention is to provide a closure member for the access opening of an evaporator chest whichisspaced from the chest and thereby avoid the possibility of the closure becoming frozen to the chest; and in the case of glass closures, to minimize the deposition of vapors on the glass.

In spacing the closure member from the chest. a problem is presented as to how to support the closure member. The natural'solution is to support it from the liner of the storage compartment in which the chest is located; Thispresents a further problem when providing a closure member for access openings extending substantially-from one wall to another of the storage compartment. In that case, the closure membermust span substantially the entire space from one liner wall to another. Consequently, conventional hinge or pivot mountings cannot be used because of the" difficulty in assembling the closure member after the cabinet structure has been completed.

Accordingly, a secondary object of the present invention is to. provide a mounting for closure members which extends from one liner. wall to another, whereby. the closure.v is pivotally supported from thetwo Walls and: can be readily mounted and dismounted, without fear of accidental dislodgement of the closure from its installed position.

The foregoing objects and others ancillary thereto will more fully appear in the following specification when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure l is a front elevational View of a refrigerator embodying the. invention; the door. of the refrigerator being open toshow the interior construction thereof Figure 2'is a fragmentary"cross-sectional View taken on substantially the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure;3 is a; fragmentarycross-sectional view taken on substantially 'theline 3-3 of Figure .1;

Figure! is a fragmentary front elevational view of'the closure for the evaporator chest and a portion ofthe liner of the food storage compartment; and

Figure 5. is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on substantially the line 5-5 of Figure 3.

Theinvention is shown as applied to a refrigerator of the household type. The refrigerator comprises a cabinet which consists of an outercasing Y [0 and'aninner linerspaced from the outer casinganddefining a food storage compartment II. The inner liner offthe food storage compartment includes a. pair of oppositely disposed upright side walls 12. The food storage compartment is provided with a door l3; Within the food storage compartment H and supported upon the upright Walls I2 are a number of'shelves M.

In the top of the compartment I I is an evaporator chest l5 whichi supported from the top wall, is spaced from all of the walls, and extends substantially-from one side wall to the other side wall. The evaporator chest l5 comprises a metal housing; shown best. in Figures 3 and 4, open at its-front side. The evaporator chest is cooled by an evaporator coil, such as the sinuous coil of tubing l5a wrapped about the housing. The evaporator chest isadapted tocontain ice cube trays or other:containers for frozen articles.

The'open; front side of theevaporator chest is provided: withaclosure li vwhichis spaced from thechest throughout its entire extent. The closure preferably is made of asheet of glass. The

glass-sheet is reinforced and. supportedabout its edges with a narrow metal frame I! of channel.

positionwhereinit is adapted to act as a shelf for a. temporary support for articles which are tobe removed orinsertedinto the evaporator chest. The. novel pivot construction for. the evaporator chest is designed to permit such use of the closure. Furthermore, since it isimpossible to gain access to-the outside; of. the liner of. the food storage compartment after it has been assembled in the cabinet, the pivot construction is such as to permit assembly and disassembly of the closure from the liner from within the food storage compartment. The particular pivot construction will now be described.

A pair of generally triangular plates 20 are attached to the frame I! of the closure at its opposite ends. The plates 20 extend at right angles to the plane of the closure I6, and are provided with flanges 2I at their front edges which are secured to the frame IT by means of screws 22. The plates 20 have short extensions 23 at their upper front and lower rear corners for a purpose which will appear presently. A hole 24 for the reception of a hinge pin is formed in the lower front corner of each of the plates 20. Still another hole 38 for the reception of one end of a spring, which will be described later, is also provided in each plate 20.

In each side wall I2 of the storage compartment and aligned with the hole 24 in the adjacent plate 20 is a hole 26. A sleeve 21 having a portion 28 of a diameter slightly less than that of thehole 25, and an inner end portion 29 of considerably greater diameter, is positioned with the portion 28 in the hole 26. The portion 28 of the sleeve is both internally and externally threaded. A speed nut 30 cooperates with the external threads of the portion 28 to secure the sleeve 21 to the side wall I2.

A hinge pin having an externally threaded shank 3| is threaded into the portion 28 of the sleeve. The hinge pin has a head 32 of a diameter substantially that of the hole 24 in the plate 20 and is inserted therein. The head 32 is slotted at 34 for the reception of a screw driver whereby to adjust the hinge pin. Between the head 32 and the shank 3| is an enlarged shoulder 33 which is adapted to engage the outside face of the adjacent plate 29 to position the closure laterally of the storage compartment I I,

A torsion spring 35 is wound around the enlarged portion 29 of the sleeve 21. The ends of the spring 35 extend rearwardly and their extremities are bent to form hooks 36 and 31. One hook 36 is inserted in the hole 25 in the wall I2, while hook 31 is inserted in a corresponding opening 38 in the adjacent plate 29. The spring 35 is always under some stress and tends to urge the closure I6 to its closed position.

In order to conceal the spring 35, the sleeve 21 and their associated parts, a cover 39 is provided. This cover is semi-circular in elevation (see Figure 2). It is secured to the corresponding wall- I2 and in front of the parts of the pivot for the closure by means of screws 40.

Secured to the wall I2 directly above the hinge pin is a stop pin 4!. The inner end of the stop pin projects inwardly past the plane of the adjacent triangular plate 20 and cooperates with the lugs 23 to limit the movement of the closure I6. It will be noted from an inspection of Figure 2 that the upper front lug 23 strikes the stop pin 4| when the closure I6 is shut, and the lower rear lug 23 contacts the stop pin 4| when the closure is in its open position. Thus, the shelf is properly supported in its horizontal position, and the closure is spaced slightly from the evaporator chest I5 when the closure is in its vertical closed position. Damage to the closure or to the evaporator chest when the closure is permitted to slam shut, is effectively prevented by a resilient sleeve 42 of rubber or similar material which encases the stop pin 4! and cushions the shock of contact between the pin 4| and the lugs 23.

The structure just described is very easily as- 4 sembled and disassembled. Preferably in manufacturing the refrigerator cabinet the sleeves 21 are secured to the side walls I2 of the liner by the nuts 30 prior to assembly of the liner within the cabinet. The stop pins 4I should also be secured to the liner prior to assembly in the cabinet. The rest of the closure and its pivot connection can be made after the cabinet is completed. The last mentioned assembly is effected by inserting the pivot pins into the sleeves 21 and threading them laterally outwardly a sufiicient distance to permit the insertion therebetween of the closure I6 and the plates 20 which are secured thereto. The spring 35 is placed over the enlarged part 29 of the sleeve and the hook 35 inserted in the opening 25 in the side wall 12. Then the cover 39 may be secured to the side wall I 2. The closure I6 is then inserted into the cabinet between the heads of the pivot pins, and a screw driver is inserted through the hole 24 and into the slot 34 in the head of the pivot pin, and the pivot pin backed out so that its head 32 extends into the hol 24 and the shoulder 33 engages the plate 20.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the present invention overcomes th difficulties of the prior art, and provides a no el and extremely simple construction for pivotally mounting a closure member within a storage compartment of a refrigerator cabinet.

The scope of the invention is indicated in the appended claim.

I claim:

A device of the character described comprising a fixed supporting member, a hinge member spaced from said fixed supporting member, an internally threaded sleeve having an end secured to said fixed supporting member and its other end positioned between said supporting member and Said hinge member, said last named end being of substantiall greater diameter than said first named end, a torsion spring surrounding the enlarged end of said sleeve and having one end connected to said hinge member and the other end connected to said supporting member, and a hinge pintle, said hinge pintle having a shank end threaded into said sleeve and axially adjustable relative thereto, said hinge pintle having a head end extending through an opening in said hinge member and having an annular shoulder thereon engaging said hinge member.

OSCAR E. NORBERG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of thispatent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,158,877 Limpert May 16, 1939 2,171,712 Potter Sept, 5, 1939 2,110,635 Rosebrook 1- Mar. 8, 1938 1,850,514 Norwood Mar. 22, 1932 2,132,255 Belshaw Oct, 4, 1938 618,160 Barker Jan. 24, 1899 2,067,623 Smith Jan. 12, 1937 188,642 Jones Mar. 20, 1877 224,409 Eichbaum Feb. 10, 1880 1,215,498 Dietz Feb. 13, 1917 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 323,148 Great Britain Dec. 24, 1929 6,266 Great Britain 1889 8,009 Great Britain Mar, 30, 1914 206,005 Germany Jan, 22, 1909 44,084 Austria Sept. 20, 1910 

